Header crop divider for an axial flow combine having side-by-side axial flow units

ABSTRACT

An axial flow combine having side-by-side axial flow units in which cutting means are provided on the transverse consolidated auger of the header to cut the crop material to be fed to the side-by-side axial flow units into discrete streams, one stream of material for each of the side-by-side units.

111 3,7dfl46 Feb. 26, 1974 United States Patent [191 Muijs 1 HEADER CROPDIVIDER FOR AN AXIAL Qush rmanW-WW etteen SIDE-BY SIDE 3,525,344 8/1970Neuber 3,616,800 11/1971 RowlandHill et a1.

[75] Inventor: Cornelis Gerardus Muijs, Brugge, 3,294,133 12/1966 ClaasBelgium 1 Primary Examiner-Antonio F. Guida [73] Assignee: Sperry RandCorporation, New

' Holland, Pa.

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Frank A. Seemar; John R. Flanagan; Joseph A.Brown 221 Filed: Aug. 27, 1971 21 App1.No.: 175,484

ABSTRACT [52] Us. C1......

An axial flow combine having side-by-side axial flow units in whichcutting means are provided on the transverse consolidated auger of theheader to cut the crop material to be fed to the side-by-side axial flowunits into discrete streams, one stream of material for each of theside-by-side units.

[51] Int. Cl. A011 7/06 [58] Field of Search..... 56/l4.6; 130/27 T;131/108,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1966Wenning..................

198/217 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTED FEBZ 6 I974 INVENTORCORNELlS s. Mums A ORNEY 1 HEADER CROP DIVIDER FOR AN AXIAL 11.0wCOMBINE HAVING SlDE-BY-SIDE AXIAL FLOW.

' UNITS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS v This invention relatesto axial flow units of the type shown on US. Application Ser. No.252,120 which is a continuationof U.S. Application Ser. No. 790,145filed Jan. 9-, 1969, now abandoned, US. Pat. No.

3,626,472 and Canadian Patent 901,908. This application discloses analternative species of tho se illustrated in US. Patent Application Ser.No. 175,522 filed Aug. 27, l97land entitled Crop Feeding Means for anAxial Flow Combine Having Side-by-Side Threshing Units.

FIELD OF' THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to theheader of an axial flow type combine having side by-side axial flowunits, each of the units including a feeding section and lthreshing'andseparatingsections. More particularly, this application relates'to aheader having means to divide the crop material, which is to be'conveyedto the feeding sections of side-by-side axial flow units, into discretestreams, one for each of the'side-by-side units.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 7 It hasbeen found during test work of thecombine shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,626,472 that occasional feedingproblems may occur. This is particularly true when working'in heavy longstemmed green crops. In these conditions a thick and tangledmat of cropmaterial is conveyed rearwardly by thecrop elevator toward theside-by-side rotors.- It is then necessary for the feeding means of eachof the axial flow units to draw the material rearwardly past atransition member to tear the mat of entangled crop material apart. Thistearing apart of the crop material by the feeding means consumesconsiderable horsepower, and may also lead to overloading one of theside-by-side units due to an uneven separation of the crop material; Toimprove the feeding characteristics in these tough straw conditions ithas been proposed in Canadian Pat. 901,908 to provide the crop elevatorwith means to separate the straw mat into separate streams one for eachof the side-by-side axial flow units, or to provide a beater between thecrop elevator and the feeding means of the side-by-sidev axial flowunits, the beater being provided with means to separate the straw matinto separate streams.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of this invention is toprovide a crop header for an axial flow combine having side-by-sideaxial flow units, the header having means to separate the crop materialinto discrete streams, each of the discrete streams being fed to one ofthe side-by-side axial tion will be apparent from the followingdescription and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings which illustrate this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective of the axialflow combine with the header of this invention and a crop elevatormounted on the front of a combine.-

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the header and crop elevator shown in FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to-FIG.1 an axial flow combine of the type having multiple side-byside axialflow units is represented generally at 10. In the following descriptionright and left hand reference is determined from standing to the rear ofthe combine and facing the direction of travel. The combine 10, as isconventional, is provided with front and rear sets of wheels 12 and 14,respectively, which support the body of the combine for forward movementover the fields to be harvested. An oper'ators station 16 is mountedonvthe forward end of the combine. Disposed below the operators stationand between the front wheels 12 is the forward end of the axial flowunits. The combine shown in FIG. 1 is shown having two axial flow units,indicated generally at 18, and while this is the preferred number ofaxial flow units, it should be appreciated that more than two unitscould be employed in side-by-side relationship. One fon'n of the axialflow units is more completely illustrated in the aforementioned US.Application Ser. No; 879,214, and it should be observed that each axialflow unit 18 of this form includes a forward feeding means and rearwardthreshing and separating means (not shown). The feeding means may be inthe form of an auger flight 24 mounted about a-longitudinally ex tendingtube whose forward end is rotatably mounted in a bearing assemblycarried by a transverse frame member 30, the tube 26 extendingrearwardly from the forward bearing assembly and also supporting thethreshing and separating means which may be in the form of rasp bars andvanes (not shown) the rasp bars and vanes cooperating with a concave andgrate (also not shown) to thresh and separate the crop from its straw.Disposed between the forward ends of the units is a transition member33. In addition to the axial flow units, the combine is provided withconventional cleaning means, grain-elevator, grain tank, and unloadingauger, of which only the grain tank 34 and unloading auger 36 are shown.

Mounted forwardly of the multiple side-by-side axial flow units 18 arecrop conveying means which include a header, indicated generally at 38,and a crop elevator, indicated generally at 40. The header shown inFIGS. 1 to 3 is of the type referred to as agrain header and has acutter bar 42 which is adapted to cut growing crop material, a reel 44which is adapted to move the crop material over the cutter barrearwardly to a transverse auger 46 which is adapted to consolidate thecut crop material and convey it towards the crop elevator. The cropelevator is conventionally provided with an undershot conveyor indicatedgenerally at 48, the undershot conveyor including a plurality of crossslats 50 mounted on endless chain 52, the endless chain in turn beingdisposed over a front sprocket 54 and a rear sprocket (not shown). Theundershot conveyor 48 is driven in a conventional manner and the crossslats on the lower run cooperate with the floor 57 of the crop conveyor40 to move the crop material upwardly and rearwardly towards the feedingmeans of the axial flow units.

While only a grain header is shown in the drawings it should beappreciated that other forms of headers may be employed in the practiceof this invention, such as, for example, a conventional corn header. Ineach of these forms of headers it is conventional to provide transverseauger 46, the transverse auger including flights 58 and 60 disposedabout the right and left hand ends, respectively, of a central augertube 62, and the flights acting upon rotation of the transverse auger toconsolidate crop material towards the center of the auger tube and tofeed the consolidated crop material upwardly and rearwardly toward thecrop elevator 40. The cutter bar 42, reel 44, and transverse auger 46are driven in a conventional manner not material to the presentinvention.

The header shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 is provided with means to form thecrop material to be conveyed to the multiple side-by-side axial flowunit into separate mats, one mat for each of the units, whereby aseparate mat is received by each of the feeding means of the units. Tothis end the center of the auger tube 62 of the header is provided witha plurality of mounting brackets 64 secured to the auger tube 62 bywelding or any other conventional manner. The mounting brackets 64 carrya plurality of outwardly extending knife sections 66 which may be in theform of conventional sickle knives. It should be noted that the knives66 lie in a plane normal to the rotational axis of the auger tubes 62.Mounted on the floor 68 of the header 38 are right and left handlongitudinally extending channel members 70,72 which also support knifesections 74, the knife sections 74 being disposed below the transverseauger 46 and which are adapted to cooperate with the knives 66 to severand/or chop the crop material into separate streams, one for each of thefeeding means of the side-by-side axial flow units.

In this form of the invention the crop material to be harvested isinitially cut by the cutter means 42 and conveyed rearwardly to thetransverse auger 46 by the reel 44. The auger flights 58 and 60consolidate the crop material centrally thereof, and finger means (notshown) in the auger convey the consolidated crop material rearwardlytowards the crop elevator 40. it should be appreciated that if thesevering means 64,66,70,72,74 were not provided that a singlehomogeneous mat of crop material would be conveyed upwardly andrearwardly towards the feeding means. However, by providing the knives66 and 74 and channel members 70,72 any material which passes over thecenter of the floor of the header will be chopped and/or severed duringrotation of the auger 48 therefore providing two separate streams ofmaterial which may be conveyed upwardly and rearwardly towards thefeeding means.

What is claimed is:

1. An axial flow combine having side-by-side axial flow units, each ofthe axial flow units having forward feeding means and rearward threshingand separating means, said units being operable to progressively feedconveyed crop material towards the threshing and separating means, tothresh the fed crop material, and to separate the threshed crop from itsstraw,

a crop elevator mounted adjacent the forward feeding means and adaptedto convey crop material rearwardly towards the side-by-side axial flowunits, and header mounted adjacent the forward end of the crop elevator,the header having a rotatable transverse crop consolidating augeradapted to consolidate harvested crop material and move the materialrearwardly towards the crop elevator, said auger including flightsdisposed about a central auger tube the combination therewith of meansmounted on the central auger tube and extending radially outwardlytherefrom and operable during rotation of the auger tube to form theharvested crop material into separate generally equally sized mats whichcan be conveyed rearwardly to the side-by-side axial flow units inseparate mats, one mat for each of the units.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the means mounted onthe central auger tube is knife means operable to sever the cropmaterial to be conveyed to the crop elevator into separate mats.

3. The combination set forth in claim 2 in which said auger tube isprovided with a plurality of knives disposed in a plane normal to therotational axis of the transverse auger.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3 in which said plurality ofknives cooperates with fixed knife means supported below the transverseauger.

1. An axial flow combine having side-by-side axial flow units, each ofthe axial flow units having forward feeding means and rearward threshingand separating means, said units being operable to progressively feedconveyed crop material towards the threshing and separating means, tothresh the fed crop material, and to separate the threshed crop from itsstraw, a crop elevator mounted adjacent the forward feeding means andadapted to convey crop material rearwardly towards the side-byside axialflow units, and a header mounted adjacent the forward end of the cropelevator, the header having a rotatable transverse crop consolidatingauger adapted to consolidate harvested crop material and move thematerial rearwardly towards the crop elevator, said auger includingflights disposed about a central auger tube the combination therewith ofmeans mounted on the central auger tube and extending radially outwardlytherefrom and operable during rotation of the auger tube to form theharvested crop material into separate generally equally sized mats whichcan be conveyed rearwardly to the side-by-side axial flow units inseparate mats, one mat for each of the units.
 2. The combination setforth in claim 1 in which the means mounted on the central auger tube isknife means operable to sever the crop material to be conveyed to thecrop elevator into separate mats.
 3. The combination set forth in claim2 in which said auger tube is provided with a plurality of knivesdisposed in A plane normal to the rotational axis of the transverseauger.
 4. The combination set forth in claim 3 in which said pluralityof knives cooperates with fixed knife means supported below thetransverse auger.